🤰Low Back Pain During Pregnancy Is A Bitch: Myth #2

This week, we are going to talk about MRIs and bulging discs.

​You may feel some challenges or biases come up if you haven't heard these statements before. It is ok to challenge your mindset and look at various perspectives.

Myth #2: My MRI from 3 years ago said I have a bulging disc and that is why I have pain. Now that I am pregnant, all of that pressure is now making more "jelly come out of the donut" and I am scared.

Things to ponder:

• I totally understand this statement. I hate to admit this, even in physical therapy school, herniated/bulging discs were described to us using the jelly donut analogy and I would describe this to my patients as well.

  • The good news is... your discs are not jelly donuts. They are actually super durable and are surrounded by bones, cartilage, fascia, muscles, tendons, and ligaments. That's one hell of a donut box!

  • In all seriousness, if our discs were like jelly donuts, American football would not be a sport! Those players would have jelly coming out of their spine constantly, not able to walk.

• Something to consider is that you may have had the bulging disc for years prior to the MRI and it may not be the actual cause of the pain.

  • Current research is showing that MRI evidence of having a bulging disc does not reliably predict low back pain in the future or correlate with symptoms!

  • 19-27% of people without low back pain symptoms have a bulging disc on imaging.

    • So this means that there are people who have low back pain but do not show any bulging discs on their MRIs and there are people who DO NOT have low back pain but their MRI shows bulging discs.

  • I know... It doesn't make sense. We are taught to believe that mechanical changes in our body from an anatomical standpoint are the reason for pain. But this is not always the case.

  • As a heads up, acute injuries heal in 6-8 weeks (unless there is a complication like an infection) so there are other reasons why you may have pain 3 years later such as muscle imbalances, stress, hormonal changes, lack of sleep, change in diet, trauma, etc.

    • When we think of educating people about low back pain, I like to use the bio-psycho-social model. It gives room to discus ALL of the possibilities why there is pain.

    • For example.. During pregnancy, our pain experiences could be due to postural changes (bio), stress about figuring out maternity leave (psycho), and lack of resources available to us due to where I live (social).

    • When we factor all of this, we get a bigger picture of how we can help reduce pain.